


Hell's Bells

by greenkangaroo



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Dori does not appreciate that, Gen, I advocate nothing these men do, M/M, Modern AU, Nori is an unrepentant criminal, at all, disorganized crime, let's see if we can't make smaug a tad more interesting, more tags as events warrent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-06
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-07 14:44:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/749700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenkangaroo/pseuds/greenkangaroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ormar Drago Goldman is going places. It's a long, hard slog to the top- but luckily, he has just the boyfriend to help him get there. Unfortunately, someone forgot to mention that  disreputable lovers often have very reputable families. A series of one shots surrounding the beautifully dysfunctional relationship of a ruthless businessman who might have been based on a dragon, his lover who may have been based on a dwarf, and a baker's dozen of aquaintances who make life difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ways To Skin A Cat

**Author's Note:**

> Well, you did it. You pushed me over the edge. You people kept asking for Smaug/Nori ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? As with all my one-shot collections I make no promises about schedule updates, since we all know how awful I am at keeping stories running. As with all my other oneshot stories, prompts and suggestions are welcome; make them at greenekangaroo.tumblr.com. My askbox is always open.

Ormar Drago Goldman- _please, call me Drago_ \- was going places. He had plans, big ones, involving private islands and jets and dinners with plates that cost more than some people made in a year. 

Of course, at the moment he had none of those things, not in his own name. He knew how to get them; it was a simple matter of playing the right markets, making the right decisions, and ruthlessly quashing the right people. Legal? Yes, but barely. There were loop holes big enough to fly through and Drago took advantage of each and every one. 

It wasn't until he reached the tender age of twenty two that Drago thought, perhaps, there was another way. 

He wasn't on the jury; he was just there as a favor for a friend, to be sure the little bastard that had managed to steal so much money from them was put away for a long time, Hypocritical, Drago knew- especially since not four months later he would catch his friend doing the same thing and using that knowledge he would gain the other man's employment perks, his office, and his salary. Still, law and order. Appearance was important.

The accused was handsome, in a sort of catlike way; redbrown hair that was far too long and a nicely trimmed beard. He looked awful in orange and answered all of the questions put to him with a smile that reminded Drago of a shark.

The recess happened and the man left with his attending officer. He caught sight of Drago watching him and he smiled. 

That smile was a little different. It was an indulgent smile. A 'do you like what you see, rich boy?' smile. A 'for my next trick' smile. 

When court resumed session after an hour long lunch, the man was nowhere to be found. 

Alarms were raised, of course. The police searched high and low. Drago was nearly late to a dinner date with an investor snapping answers to pointless questions at some peon with a notebook. He made the date, just barely. 

In the grand scheme of things, losing one money launderer wasn't too big a deal. The police were in an uproar; it mattered as much to Drago Goldman as a mosquito bite. So the company had lost money. Companies lost money all the time. It was easy enough to get it back.

Drago didn't think of the man again until he saw him in a bookstore two months later. 

That it was him, Drago had no doubt. The hair had changed, styled differently; he wasn't wearing an orange jumpsuit. The way he grinned at Drago, though, as he stood up from where he had been sitting with a magazine and a coffee, the way he sauntered so easily out the door without even bothering to pretend to pay for the reading material- 

Drago began to think, then, that perhaps he was on to something.


	2. Misheard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't the most precise or well ordered of proposals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as should be evident, nothing about this story is going to be any kind of chronological order. Rated M for language, I guess?

The helicopter was in flames, the estate was in shambles, there was a nationwide manhunt going on that they had just fucking _barely_ escaped, and Drago was on one knee in his ruined armani pants, hands clasped over his kneecap in lieu of a ringbox he wasn't holding.

Surely, Nori had misheard. 

"...what?" Nori asked. 

"Marry me." Drago repeated, as calmly as he'd ever told Nori to shoot a competitor in the head or break into a building or gamble away enough money to buy his hometown three times over. 

"What- what the _fuck-_ " Nori grabbed Drago's arm but his employer was bigger than him; it was like trying to move a marble pillar. "Are you fucking serious right now fuck what did you inhale can we please fucking RUN?"

Nori wasn't planning on spending more time in prison than he had to. If they caught them, Drago would let Nori go to prison, and he couldn't be without him, couldn't risk that Drago would forget him behind bars like he forgot everything else that wasn't his Swedish bank accounts-

"Answer me." Drago demanded, in that way he haughtily ordered around every maid he'd ever hired until finally Nori got tired of it and punched him hard enough to loosen some teeth.

"If I say maybe will you run?" Nori demanded. He could hear sirens, faintly; a downed helicopter in an empty field was going to attract far more than the local police, given another hour or two.

"I won't believe you," Drago tried to straighten his tie and Nori didn't bother telling him it was pointless. "but I will accept it. As a _placeholder._ "

"Great, then fucking _maybe_ you arrogant prick now let's GO."

It took three stolen cars, two bodies, and a few phone calls before they were safely out of the country. 

They didn't talk about the question in the field again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They will write a bad romance. Assuming they survive to the altar.


	3. Thicker Than Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ori does as Dori asks, when he can.

Ori tries very hard to do as Dori asks. 

Dori worries for him, away at such a big school; but the opportunity was too good, the scholarship too generous. Ori knows that Dori did not want him to live on campus but the drive is nearly four hours and not even for the love of his brother-who-might-as-well-be-his-mother was Ori going to try and be a commuting student, not with the library on campus. 

Ori tries very hard to do as Dori asks. He doesn't stay out (too late) he doesn't drink (that much) and he tries to make friends with good people. Ori isn't sure if Kili Durin counts as a good person, but he's fun, and he's earnest, and he's got the courage that Ori sometimes lacks. Ori thinks that's what he wants in a friend. 

The one thing Ori can't do for Dori has everything to do with Nori. 

Sometimes, Ori will get a text, or a phone call. Sometimes he wakes up with every intention of going to class and instead winds up in a tux at a fancy resturant, staring wide-eyed at the man that his brother insists isn't his boyfriend. The not-boyfriend wears clothes that cost more than Dori makes in his teashop in a week. He is always very polite to Ori, and Ori knows that the not-boyfriend- whose name is Drago, and what kind of a name is that?- must really like Nori. Men dressed like that wouldn't talk to broke students in hand-knitted cardigans for anything less than love. 

Sometimes Ori hangs on to things for Nori that he knows he shouldn't- watches, bags. A box, once, whose contents Ori did not ask about. He kept it at the bottom of his dirty laundry bag until his brother returned for it at three in the morning on a Sunday. 

"You're old enough to say no to me, you know," Nori says, but Ori never says no because his memories of Nori in younger days are blurred by angry yelling and shadows and the sound of the front door slamming.

Nori loves him, Ori knows that. He was at Ori's graduation, every birthday he could manage. Nori listens when Dori can't or won't and his advice is strange sometimes, but it is earnest and often it is right. Ori knows that Nori loves Dori, too. Ori long ago learned the great truth: just because they are family, and you love them, does not mean you need to like them. 

Ori knows the things he does for Nori are illegal, sometimes. Everything Nori does is illegal, _especially_ when it involves the man who is not his boyfriend, the tall strawberry blonde with the eyes he says are brown but Ori is positive are red. 

Kili thinks that Nori is 'cool, in a sort of freaky way'. He swears himself to secrecy and Ori trusts him because that's what friends do, even though he's met Kili's uncle Thorin and by extension Thorin's friend Dwalin who is both the most handsome man Ori has ever seen and the most terrifying.

Nori calls Dwalin 'old ironsides'. It is an old joke. He doesn't share with Ori. 

Ori loves both of his brothers, and so he does what Dori asks when he can, and helps Nori when he can't. 

There will be consequences, someday. Ori is aware. 

Still. Blood is thicker than water, and if push comes to shove, he knows his brothers will prove it. 

One way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the relationship dynamic of the Brothers Ri is a lot of fun to work with. Even moreso when you stick in Smaug.


	4. Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> green eyed monsters.

They made no promises to one another. 

Drago reminded himself of that, every time he saw Nori slink off into the night with a different man- sometimes woman- on his arm. They were always gorgeous, these lovers. Universally so. Nori had a gift for finding pretty things. 

No promises meant that Drago wasn't allowed to threaten anyone; it didn't stop him. 

He was just protecting his investments, that was all. Nori was an investment, a very important one. Nori had ties that Drago could not afford to lose. Nori had skills that were imperetive to Drago Goldman's continued superiority in the markets, both the free and the black. It only made sense that he would want to keep tabs on who Nori saw and talked to and went on dates with and fucked. 

Any one of them could be a loose end. Drago did not like loose ends. 

Once- only once- did Drago tape Nori. It was at a hotel designed for such things, a place Nori frequented when he was on longer jobs. The whore was a big man, a redhead, though it wasn't natural. Some of the blonde showed through. Nori didn't seem to care. 

Drago got through ten minutes of listening to Nori scream for someone who _wasn't_ him before he turned the tape off. He bought the hotel. He razed it to the ground. He sold the space to the city for use as a public park, to encourage 'positive urban experiences'. 

They made no promises.

\---

They made no promises to one another and Nori knew he wasn't content with that. 

Drago had a face to keep up. Public events to attend, photo ops to stand still and look gorgeous for. He always did look gorgeous, with the flavor of the week on his arm. They were nearly always brunette, which Nori thought Drago picked because brunettes set off the red in his hair better than blondes did. Drago gave interviews and smiled for the camera and wore Italian cut suits because they fit his broad shoulders better. 

Nori didn't ask if Drago slept with the escorts he hired to come with him to balls and charity dinners. He was sure Drago didn't remember their names. 

Drago couldn't get _dirty_ and Nori hated that. He hated that Drago always looked so good, not a fucking hair out of place, like he didn't know what he was doing to Nori's insides and of course he didn't because Nori would go to hell and ask satan for an entry level internship before he would admit that Ormar Drago Goldman, the fucking trust fund twat, made him feel insecure. 

There were men, too. Nori knew Drago fucked the men. He knew that Drago took his lovers to his house on the shore, tied them to the same bedpost Nori had been tied to. Maybe if they had the same amount of money as he did they were allowed to switch off. Nori had to fight for it. 

When he fought he made sure to leave marks. 

Nori watched the annual Unity Ball on TV, drinking a beer with his feet propped up.

Drago entered right after Thrain Durin, smiling for the camera. Nori knew the smile; it was the 'I loathe all of you' smile. The viewers didn't know that. They loved it. 

They made no promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP IS HEALTHY. 
> 
> in other news, boys are dumb.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who are interested, both Ormar and Drago mean dragon- the first in a form of old norse translating to serpent or mouth of serpent (thank you finnish anon), the second in Italian. Goldman is...well sort of self explanatory.


End file.
